Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a charging station for charging an autonomously navigating utility vehicle and a guide for guiding the autonomously navigating utility vehicle to the charging station.
Description of Related Art
Techniques are known that control an autonomously navigating utility vehicle equipped with electric motors and a battery so as to perform a task while autonomously navigating or traveling in a working area delineated by a boundary wire, as taught by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2013-164741, for example. When the battery requires charging, the technique described in this reference makes the utility vehicle return to a charging station installed above the boundary wire by driving it along the boundary wire on the basis of outputs of magnetic sensors.
However, the technique described in the reference requires the charging station to be installed above the boundary wire and in a direction parallel to the boundary wire, so that freedom of charging station arrangement is restricted.